Chapter 9: five » how to plan a breakup

Selene had woken up abnormally early on Monday.

She had always thought of herself as an early riser, after all, she woke up fairly early in comparison to her peers. But waking up at six fifteen AM on Monday at the third alarm she set went off made her realize she was not a morning person.

After doing a face full of makeup and dressing up in an outfit suitable for her and Zoë's plan as well as her school's dress code.

Seeing the layer of dark clouds in the sky that practically screamed rain she had decided to dress a bit warmer.

She wore a bright orange cropped sweater, black high waisted ripped jeans, hoop earrings and a thin choker. Her makeup was mostly simple with nude lips and her eyelids coloured red and burnt orange like a sunset with a small wing of eyeliner and some mascara. She straightened her hair and put half of it up in a high ponytail while the rest flowed down her back. She put on some all-black converse and grabbed a windbreaker as she headed out of the house with her Michael Kors backpack, her keys in her hand.

April showers bring May flowers, she reminded herself as she stared up at the dark clouds. Though it wasn't quite April yet, the sentiment remained.

The day felt entirely weird.

She didn't have Zoë saving her a parking spot when she arrived to school like always, she didn't meet Zoë at her locker or walk to their first period class together. Instead, she saw that Zoë was already sitting at the other side of the room in a new seat.

She had to remind herself that it was all for show. Like secret agents on a mission, they had to make their cover believable and they couldn't blow it. She couldn't take it personal.

By the time the second lunch started and she was free from the constraints of class for an hour, she could have wept, but she remembered just how long the wings on her eyelids had taken.

She found an empty table in the quad, a couple of tables away from where Declan's group notoriously sat.

They sat there a few moments later and Selene put her earbuds in and took out her lunch, trying to seem nonchalant as she watched them out of the corner of her eyes.

Now that she thought about it, she had never really spoke to his friends—sans for an incident during grade nine when his friend, Verona, had walked up to her and told her bluntly that Selene's boyfriend at the time was sharing her nudes with other guys in his grade proclaiming that he had 'bagged the superintendent's daughter'.

When it became clear that Declan didn't notice her, she began to eat her lunch, stabbing her chicken salad and drinking her pressed juice.

"Hey."

She looked up, momentarily choking on a leaf of spinach.

Declan stood before her, wearing a green hoodie under a jean jacket with a pair of black jeans. She couldn't see any bracelets as his arms were covered but she could see the couple of rings he sported on both hands. His dark hair was covered with a tan baseball cap that cast a shadow over his face and it was obvious he hadn't shaved that morning due to the scruff on his jaw. Two golden necklaces dipped into his hoodie presumably the cross and some other chain.

She chewed and swallowed the leaf of spinach. She took out her earphones, shifting her posture and smiling up at him. "What's up?" she asked with a smile, using her fork to gesture to the seat across from her.

He took the seat. "Not much," he replied. "What's up with you, Selene?"

She chuckled a bit. "You see, I was just eating but someone happened to interrupt."

He picked up her bottle of pressed juice. "And rightfully so—what is this?"

She suddenly remembered that the last time she had conversed with him he had sent her a picture of his little Declan and tried not to cringe. "Pressed juice," she said, "it's good for you."

Declan made a face and glanced at her lunch. Tuition for the school came with a meal plan so nearly every student ate at the cafeteria—not that she could blame them, their cafeteria food was really good—but Selene had had a prepared lunch every day for three years.

He flipped the bottle in his hands before throwing it in the air and landing it on the table perfectly upright.

He raised his eyebrow at her, in response she put down her fork and clapped her hands together. "Very impressive," she said.

He smiled, stretching his arms over his head and flexing them a little. "What can I say, I'm a man of many talents."

"Oh?" She inquired, leaning forward.

He shrugged, mirroring her position. "Maybe I can show you."

She pulled back, raising an eyebrow.

"You know, I have my house to myself tonight--"

"I'm sorry," she started. "Do you think that I'm trying to—let alone want to—get into your pants?"

He paused.

She rolled her eyes and stood, trying to remind her of things that made her mad so she could correctly show that anger to him.

"Selene," he said.

She continued to grab her things including the flipped bottle of red juice and began walking away.

"Jesus," he swore and followed after her. "Slow down, campus security is looking at me weird."

He cut her off, making her stop in her tracks.

She had thought of enough pet peeves that she was thoroughly mad and she projected the anger towards him. "Look," she said harshly, "I don't know who the frick you think I am, but I'm not the girl that's going to just screw you because you paid me attention. You want someone to hookup with? Find someone else."

His lips twitched. "Frick?"

She hiked her bag over her shoulder and tried to bypass him.

The smile dropped from his face and he put out his hands to stop her from leaving. "Hey, hey, wait, please."

She paused staring up at him. "You have thirty seconds."

"I'm really really sorry for what I said," he began. "I didn't mean to assume; it's just that we never really talked before so I don't really know your intentions."

"Twenty seconds," she warned.

"I don't know much about you," he sighed. "But I want to learn." He glanced away for an infinitesimal second then his gaze locked with hers. A piercing grey-blue that made her uncomfortable. "I'd really love to learn more about you."

She looked at him for a moment and he shifted nervously under her gaze.

"I'll think about it," she finally said.

He let out a breath of slight relief and she stepped around him and headed back to the school.

»

Selene opens the door to see find Zoë on the other side, her fist raised to knock as if ringing the doorbell a million times wasn't enough.

Zoë practically pushes past her as she heads towards the kitchen. She throws her bag onto the island chair that Selene just abandoned. "What'd he say to you?" She opened the fridge and peered inside, her head disappearing behind the door.

"When? Before or after he tried to get into my pants?" she sat at the island. It was covered with loose leaf graph paper, sloppily written notes, various writing utensils and a calculus textbook. She was doing math homework before Zoë knocked down her door like a mad woman. She began to clean everything up into neat, aesthetically pleasing piles.

"Ugh, he's disgusting—where are your cherries?"

"Left." She tapped the stack of papers against the countertop to straighten them.

Zoë returns from behind the fridge door with the pack of cherries. She puts them in a bowl and runs them under cold water before turning back to Selene. "What else did he say?"

She shrugs. "Well after I told him I wasn't going to have sex with him—" Zoë scoffs "—he said some line that he probably thought was smooth about how he 'wants to get to know me."

"And?"

"I told him I'd think about it."

Zoë shook her head.

Selene felt like she was being reprimanded for doing something wrong.

"You have to unfollow me on Insta."

"Wait what?" How did the conversation fly from Declan trying to sleep with her to unfollowing each other on Instagram? "Zoë, this was you plan too. You can't get mad at me for whatever Declan does—"

"No. This is part of the plan. No one is going to believe that I'm going to allow my best friend to flirt with my ex literal days after we break up."

Selene clutched her chest. "Are you...friend breaking up with me?"

"Yes and no."

Selene gasped dramatically, falling back into her chair. "Leave me here to die."

"We're still friends, you drama queen." She threw a cherry stem at her. "We just have to unfollow each other on social media and delete every photo of each other so that it looks legit."

Selene frowns. "But some of my favourite photos are with you and deleting it just messes with the aesthetic of my page."

"Then find a new aesthetic."

Selene gasped. "How dare you! It took my fifteen minutes of looking on Pinterest to get that aesthetic. I worked hard for it."

"I have access to your Insta and will literally delete them myself."

She pouted. "Fine. What else am I unfollowing you on?"

"My spam IG, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat—"

"But we'll lose our streak!"

Zoë glared at her.

"Fine."

"Thank you."

"Okay but can you at least consider that we just hit a thousand days?"

"Selene," Zoë whines.

"Okay, fine. Go ahead, you know my password." She slid her phone across the counter.

Zoë picked it up and held both phones as she went through both of their social accounts, at the same time. After a few moments, Zoë handed the phone back.

It was still on Instagram, Zoë's page in front of her. The follow button blue as it prodded her to add to Zoë's followers.

She pressed the home button.

"That's not all," Zoë said.

"Why must you wound me more?"

"People aren't going to believe that we're not friends just because we're not talking to each other and unfollowed each other."

"I don't like whatever direction this is going."

"We're going need to have a fight."

"That's not fair, you have five year of karate under your belt."

Zoë gave her a look. "And you did boxing for two."

"Hey! No one ever said I was good."

Zoë rolled her eyes. "And I didn't mean a physical fight—though I would kick your ass."

It was Selene's turn to glare.

"I'm just joking," Zoë insisted.

"What kind of fight?" Selene asked. "Are we commenting bitchy things on each other's Insta photos? Are we indirectly confronting each other on Snap stories?"

"We're going to yell at each other. Tomorrow, lunch in the caf'. The whole screaming until hall monitors pull us apart."

Selene shook her head. "I'm the superintendent's daughter. Everyone on staff would want a reason to blame me and connect it to your father."

"That won't happen."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'll start it. If I'm the aggressor and you're the innocent girl who takes my shit for a bit then you'll be fine."

Selene sighed.

Zoë took a sheet of paper from Selene's neat pile and folded it in half before grabbing a pen and writing. When she was done she passed it to Selene.

RULES FOR SELENE + ZOË FIGHT

The following things are NOT permitted: slut-shaming, family drama/issues, secrets, grade nine, any and all insecurities.

"Okay?" Zoë asked.

"I still don't know."

"Come on! Even Declan isn't stupid enough to think I'll allow my best friend to be talking to him after we broke up. You said yourself that he asked if you were my friend. We're just wasting our time with this stupid fucking plan if he doesn't believe us."

"Fine."

"You'll do it?"

Selene nodded.

Zoë squeal and ran around the island to trap her in a hug. "Thank you so much."

"Yeah, yeah." Selene rocked back and forth with her until Zoë let go and grabbed her bag.

"You're leaving?" Selene asked.

They usually did homework together. Sometimes whoever had more gas in their tank would drive them to the library so they could do work in one of the private study rooms. Selene guessed they didn't do that anymore; to the outside world they technically weren't friends anymore.

Zoë nodded. "I have to do this calc. homework and I already know if I stay we'll end up planning out the whole fight and it won't be natural."

"Okay, if you say so." Selene got up to walk Zoë to the door. Once there Zoë hugged her again saying that they'd always be best friends no matter what. After she released Selene she got into her pale pink Cadillac and sped off. When her car was gone, Selene stepped back inside her house with a sigh.

a/n:

hello crazy butterflies.

welcome to this month's updates. chapters five through seven will be posted which concludes part one of Selene and Zoë's plan. i hope you all had a great holiday and a happy new year. comment your new year's resolutions below.

thank you for reading. be sure to comment below, vote, follow and share.